A Guide to Apple Lawsuits

A big lawsuit against a prominent tech company, such as Apple, tends to grab headlines for awhile, but what seems shocking to the average person (Lawsuit X means the iPhone is doomed!) is commonplace to major corporations. Apple, like most other entities that builds things and earns money, is almost constantly either being sued or fighting another company for rights to something else; it’s so common that the answer to the question "Should I get an engineering degree or a liberal arts degree?" is "Go into corporate law." Here’s just a sampling of some recent legal activity that Apple’s been involved in.

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Apple Lawsuits: A Guide

Apple says they should own "App Store," but Microsoft says it's too generic. Amazon agrees because they just launched an app store for Android, called the "Amazon appstore". Apple filed a lawsuit against the online behemoth to get them to change the name, but it's still too early to tell if they'll be successful. One thing we do know is that this lawsuit has taken the wind out of Amazon's big unveiling; instead of talking about its cool features, all everyone's saying is "Amazon's getting sued!"

Robocast just filed a lawsuit against Apple for violating its patented automated browsing technology across a number of products, including iTunes, Front Row, and Apple TV. The patent is for an "Automated browsing system for publishers and users on networks serving internet and remote devices," and wording like that seems like it could cover a whole lot of companies. If Apple's in violation, why isn’t Hulu or Youtube?

Cordance Corp., a patent holding company, just filed a lawsuit against Apple, PayPal, and Victoria's Secret over their use of one-click payment systems. It seems that Cordance, once a real company, now exists to protect its patent portfolio, and was successful (barring appeal) in suing Amazon for violating its one-click patent, despite the fact that Amazon has its own one-click patent. Cordance seems to want Apple and the others to pay a licensing fee, rather than change their checkout system.

Elan Microelectronics is continuing its ongoing lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company's infringed upon its patents revolving multitouch technology. In April 2009 Elan asked a U.S. Court to stop Apple from producing, using and selling iPod touches, iPhones, and MacBooks. In 2010 they asked the U.S. Trade Commission to ban infringing products. Recently there's been word that Elan and Apple are considering a $100 million settlement; there's been no public comment from Apple yet, however.

Back in 2005, Thomas Slattery led consumers in an antitrust case against Apple, claiming that they were engaging in antitrust behavior by only allowing audio protected by its own FairPlay DRM system onto the iPod. This week the Judge said Steve Jobs will give testimony for this case, because he has "non-repetitive, firsthand knowledge." Apple has allowed unprotected music on iPods for quite a while, but that doesn't mean Apple couldn't be found guilty of anti-competitive behavior in the past.